Illumi's judgment had been correct.
The wall suddenly shattered, and a massive skeletal hand wrapped in crimson chakra reached straight for him.
At the same time, the shadow clone using Lightning Release Body Armor also closed to within two meters of Illumi, Chidori crackling in its hand.
The Chidori shifted slightly under the clone's control, lining up with Illumi's heart with absolutely no intention of holding back.
Even Illumi's normally expressionless face showed a trace of surprise at the sudden turn.
But in the next moment, he unleashed a burst of silver needles at the clone while moving his feet, leaving behind a flurry of afterimages.
Susanoo's hand kept sweeping forward, crushing one afterimage after another as it reached for him.
Meanwhile, the shadow clone was pinned in place by nearly a hundred silver needles, all hitting with sharp metallic clinks. But the needles couldn't pierce the protection of the lightning chakra, and the frozen clone turned its head and locked onto Illumi's true position again.
Shikyoku was a fine assassination technique—using changes in speed and rhythm to create countless afterimages and mislead the enemy.
But a move like that was useless against Ronin.
The Sharingan could easily track Illumi's real body, and once Ronin had seen that strange footwork, it naturally became something he could copy.
The clone's speed surged again, chasing after Illumi even faster than Illumi himself could move.
As for Susanoo's arm, once it stretched to a certain point, it stopped and quickly broke apart.
Ronin's real body stepped out of the room nearby at that moment.
But Illumi had already leapt out through the window and landed in the villa's courtyard.
The shadow clone followed close behind. The Chidori in its hand had already dispersed, replaced by four fingers held together in a row—the starting posture of the Four-Finger Nukite.
Ronin's real body strode to the window. Chakra poured into his left eye, his gaze locking onto Illumi. In an instant, AmenoTokotachi activated.
Illumi sensed danger, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from.
What he could tell was that the danger wasn't from the lightning closing in behind him. That left only one possibility—
Illumi turned his head and saw Ronin standing by the window. Under the moonlight, the aura gathered in Ronin's eyes made them shine with an eerie brilliance.
Those crimson eyes looked like a demon's.
In that same instant, Illumi instinctively twisted slightly to the side. The next second, he felt his shoulder suddenly lock up.
His body froze in place, dragged to a halt by the shoulder.
Yet a wave of relief rose from the bottom of his heart, because he knew that if he hadn't shifted his body by that tiny instinctive movement, it wouldn't have been his shoulder that got locked.
It would have been his head.
"Missed?"
Ronin narrowed his eyes slightly. It wasn't that he had missed—Illumi had dodged it.
Was that incredible predictive ability, or just the instinct of a top-tier fighter?
Ronin leaned toward the latter, because under the Sharingan's observation, Illumi's movement at that moment had no real pattern to it.
Still, so what if it had only caught the shoulder?
The shadow clone had already closed in to Illumi's side, and the Four-Finger Nukite stabbed toward Illumi's back.
Blood sprayed. The Four-Finger Nukite pierced Illumi's body, but the position was wrong—it slipped from the heart toward the side of his abdomen.
It wasn't because the clone had missed.
The moment the attack landed, Illumi's body changed.
That change appeared not only in his abdomen, but in his shoulder as well.
He forcibly tore flesh away from his own shoulder, and despite the pain in his side, grabbed the shadow clone's piercing arm with one hand.
Lightning spread across Illumi's body, but his expression didn't change. His other hand slapped toward the clone's body.
A thin needle pierced through the clone's defense and entered its body.
But in that same instant, the clone exploded into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.
Illumi's almond-shaped eyes shifted slightly. He glanced at Ronin's real body, who had only just jumped down from the second floor of the villa, then his own feet moved, and he disappeared over the courtyard wall.
All that remained was the blood scattered on the ground and half a shoulder floating strangely in the air.
"Interesting."
Ronin had seen it clearly.
At the instant the shadow clone's attack landed, Illumi had stabbed needles into his own body, forcing it to deform and barely avoid a fatal hit.
As for ripping off his own shoulder—that was just pure ruthlessness.
Judging from how little blood spilled from the wound, Illumi had probably altered and adjusted that shoulder in advance as well.
The lightning hadn't hurt him, which wasn't too surprising.
After all, he came from an assassin family. He was probably used to electricity from childhood, just like Killua.
Maybe next time I should try Water Prison, Ronin thought.
That was a technique that had even trapped Kakashi. In a one-on-one fight, it might be extremely effective.
Would Illumi come back after this failure?
Ronin was a little curious.
And was Illumi here to kill him, or to kill Ryan?
"It looks like Chrollo made his move," Kurapika appeared from behind. The fight had started and ended too quickly—so quickly that he hadn't had any chance to step in.
"How so?" Ronin already had a guess.
If Chrollo hadn't contacted him, there was no reason for Illumi to appear in Meteor City to assassinate Ryan right after Ryan had just made contact with them.
Kurapika's explanation matched Ronin's thoughts exactly.
"Only, I think Illumi was set up too," Kurapika said. "I don't believe Chrollo, knowing you have clones and that you already used that trick against Raymond, wouldn't have expected this situation."
"If I kill Illumi here, will the Zoldyck family come after me with everything they have?" Ronin asked curiously.
"No idea. There's no precedent for it—at least none in the intel I've been able to dig up." Kurapika shrugged.
Even though the Zoldyck family lived openly on Kukuroo Mountain, a famous tourist destination, the inner workings of that family were still a mystery.
All the information anyone could find only said that the Zoldycks had occupied Kukuroo Mountain for over a thousand years.
Maybe that family was hiding far more secrets than anyone knew.
"You want to fight the strongest members of the Zoldyck family, don't you?" Kurapika seemed to see right through Ronin's thoughts.
"Yeah, a little. But I'm not in a rush, and I'm not looking for a fight to the death." Ronin said.
Silva and Zeno were truly strong.
At least from this encounter with Illumi, Ronin could tell that Illumi was still far below his father.
Illumi's strength was about on the same tier as a Phantom Troupe member.
But if Silva fought a Troupe member one-on-one, he'd probably be able to kill them instantly.
Ronin's aura pool was still far behind Silva's, but he had many different methods at his disposal. Silva probably wouldn't find it easy to kill him either.
~~~
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